Elmore
by DanOSG
Summary: I'm sorry but this fanfic is officially dead, I had half a chapter sat on my desktop, ready to be finished for the longest time, but I semi-recently got a pretty bad virus on my PC and it was lost, one day, I may return to this, I didn't get much of a reception from it but the reviews I did get mean a lot, I do plan to keep on writing, even on this account, but for now, goodbye.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: My first day.

"I woke up today, my usual glum self, knowing today is the start of something new, a day for hope and a day for celebration, but I just wont be happy knowing that my life will always be incomplete, I burnt my bridges and destroyed my only true chance of happiness, good. I alienated my only friends, the only ones who cared about me, good, now I can just do what I'm good at with no distractions.

It's ok though, I fought through the pain, wiped away the tears and pushed through, what I did is my baggage to carry and I refuse to let anyone else bare it, because I failed them, I pushed them away, I forced them to hate me and now I hate myself, but I'll persevere, I'll go further than either of them ever could because I'm better than them and that is a fact, I'm smarter, stronger and have all the talents to put even the best cops to shame, and I know this, its hard being smarter than everyone and knowing it, in one way I can read a mammal like a book, but I'll never truly feel for them, I'll never empathise because that's not who I am, and it hurts it truly does knowing I'll never be like them, but at least I can use my curse to help others".

Robby put down his journal, his tears covered the page and he had nothing left to write that wouldn't make it worse, the book wasn't too big but he had only recently started writing in it so it was almost entirely empty, but he knew he'd fill it up fast, but not right now, today was his first day in Tundra Town PD, it had only been a few weeks since he graduated so he was ready to get to work.

For Robby even a day doing nothing was a nightmare, he hates to be doing anything other than work so he knew he'd be ready for anything the PD would throw at him, no matter how mundane, no matter how thrilling he'd be ready for anything.

He checked his clock, it read 6:31am "I better get ready, the snow's pretty heavy today. he whispered to himself lightly, as he stood up he bumped his chair away and started heading towards his dresser.

"Jeez, I better get put on plain clothes duty as soon as possible this uniform looks so uncomfortable", begrudgingly he threw on the light blue ZPD uniform. Robby was particularly picky about what he liked to wear and this was not something he liked, but he knew he'd get used to it dealt with the situation as he usually would, uncaring and nonchalantly.

For his first day he decided to walk to the precinct, he could of taken the bus or even a taxi, but he thought getting to know the area he lives in would be useful in the future. As he walks through the snow he notices the distinct lack of any other mammals in the street, the occasional polar bear or wolf would be seen meandering through the streets into the back alleys, his thoughts drew to the fact that if the streets are this empty it can mean either no one in tundra town is awake this early or the place just doesn't have that many inhabitants, he hoped for the latter as it means his first day shouldn't be too overwhelming, but he knew it was more than likely the former.

Robby looks down to his wrist, his watch read 6:55am, he was just outside the ZPD Tundra Town Precinct, he saw mammals walking in and out, almost the complete opposite of the rest of town, warm, busy and bright.

As he walks in he notices a distinct lack of other officers. "huh, must be in briefing", he walked towards the reception desk, he saw the officer behind the desk, A particularly large elephant whos badge reads "Officer Trunkski", "Why would an elephant be working in Tundra Town, surely he'd freeze in a place like this." Robby thought to himself, intrigued but not enough to consider asking about it.

"Hey buddy, the names Officer Elmore, todays my first day, would ya mind telling me where I go to get briefed?". Officer Trunkski was busy reading a newspaper but with such large ears he couldn't pretend he didn't hear the low-toned voice of the fox officer. Trunkski groaned to himself and said "Yeah, down there and the third door on the right", the officer pointed towards a row of rooms in a large corridor. "thanks buddy" Robby performs a small salute and walks off towards the briefing room, Trunkski goes back to reading his paper and takes a sip from his coffee as the young officer walks away "He's gonna get eaten alive" he mumbled.

* * *

Authors notes:

So this is the first actual chapter of my first ever fanfic! I've gone over it quite a bit to check for grammar mistakes and I think its OK but I may update it in the near future if I find any ways to improve it, I was also hoping for 1000 words but I felt like ending the chapter naturally was a bit more important, I'm also thinking of changing the title but can't think of anything better in all honesty, though I have a good idea for my second chapters name.

now for the important stuff, yes, this will include Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde in the future, but right now the next few chapters will be set around 1 year after Bellwether was arrested, but that's not going to lead directly into the story, or at least not for the moment. right now however it is going to be about setting up the story and getting to know the main character who will be adversely affecting the lives of Judy and Nick, right now though I feel its best for you all to get to know this character and his personality, i may also change the main characters name in the future as Robby doesn't feel 100% right to me, Elmore will stay though, and I'll definitely add a middle name in the future.

If you'd like to leave a review feel free as I'm always wanting to improve my work and I'm happy to have people nitpicking even the tiniest details.

Also, is Trunkski a bad name? I sorta like it but it feels like a weak pun, I'll leave it as is right now but he's not too important a character so its not a big issue either way.

Thanks for reading, I should have chapter 2 out within 2 days, depending on how long it is.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: A Brief Morning

Robby walked into the busy briefing room, as he went to check his watch he couldn't help but overhear some of the words his fellow officers were saying. Two officers, a grey wolf and a young lion, the wolf was clearly the lions partner due to the way they talked so nonchalantly, "how'd she get out anyway?" the lion questioned, seeming partially intrigued and slightly worried, "no one knows, apparently her connections go deeper than anyone thought".

Robby passed by and his left ear flicked with interest, but he couldn't stop to listen and just carried on walking. He found the nearest empty seat and lowered himself down gently, making sure not to sit on his tail, after an incident in high-school he always took extra care not too.

A tall foreboding figure appears at the briefing room door, and in walked the chief of the Tundra Town Precinct, A polar bear with one ear, large and white he walked over to his desk, his paws filled with files, Robby assumed they were today's assignments and as usual, he was right.

"A ten-hut!" The chief growled at the top of his voice, every officer in the room stood to attention, saluting their chief, "At ease officers" he said in a much calmer pitch with a brisk accent that sounds almost Russian but is clearly of Zootopian origin. Every officer in the room took their seats, Robby the last to sit due to his overtly careful nature when sitting down.

"As a lot of you know, there is a very dangerous criminal roaming our streets, now, it wouldn't usually be our problem and we'd have detectives from city central would be dealing with this, but as we know the city central cops aren't exactly good in the snow so it's now our issue, and by our issue, I mean your issue, because I don't want anything to do with this until its resolved, so, as this was just dumped on my desk I'll be giving it to anyone who wants it"

Robby threw his hand in the air as fast as he could, he wanted this case to be his more than anything. "I'd be happy to take this one sir" he shouted, not wanting to be ignored. The chief glared at Robby. "Officer Elmore! Our newest officer, our first fox officer no less, don't they usually send your kind to city central? Anyway, I'd be happy to give you this one but unfortunately you don't have a partner and I couldn't in all good consciousness send you after such a dangerous criminal all on your own".

Robby seemed offended, "Sir, I am just as capable, if not more capable than any officer here, I find it rather ignorant that you'd instantly assume I'm lesser of an officer due to my species, as far as I'm concerned this case would be perfect for me and by the way no other officers in the room even offered I feel like its pretty obvious that I should be taking this case"

The chief snarled loudly, but came to the realisation that no other officers did offer to take the case, so he had no choice but to reluctantly give Robby the case. "Fine, officer Elmore you can have the case, BUT, and this is a big but, you WILL have a partner, and you WILL have the case solved by next week, or else you'll be on traffic duty for the rest of your professional career, how does that sound officer?"

Robby's ears fell back as he realised what he'd just been told, but being as overly confident as he is, he accepted reluctantly and took the folder from the chief. While being passed the folder he managed to get a glimpse of the chiefs badge, "Chief Polaski" the badge read.

"now, who is going to be our new officers partner?" the chief shouted, every officer in the room groaned at the mere thought of having to work with the new guy, except one. "I'd be happy to work with officer Elmore" a soft, timid voice shouted from the back row, Robby looked back and didn't see anyone, so he assumed that whoever it was must have been behind one of the rhino officers, so he decided to wait until he's either introduced or met by the officer to try and greet his new partner.

"Fine" Chief Polaski said with a sigh of relief, "Officer Willow will be partnered with officer Elmore, now that we're done with that I can hand out the rest of the assignment" Chief Polaski looked down at his folders.

While the chief was handing out assignments to the other officers, Robby was busy reading the assignment, he skim read mostly due to the amount of time he had but all he needed was the name, the last location and known associates, as he read through, he found the name: Dawn Bellwether, Last Known Location: fish market, Known associates: Doug Ramses, Duke Weaselton, Mr Big.

"Mr Big? They took him down last week, He's probably still being held in the City Central holding cells, I'll have to pay him a visit." He whispered to himself. Robby continued to skim read but found no other information that could help his investigation.

The timid voice that Robby heard before comes from behind him, but closer this time, basically stood right behind him, "Officer Elmore, I'm officer Willow, I'll be your new partner", Robby looked for the source of the voice and to his shock, standing next to him was a rhino nearly twice his height, looking even bigger due to him being sat down. Robby wondered how the voice could belong to such a towering, and frankly frightening figure.

"Ah, officer willow, glad to make your acquaintance, hopefully this case will be relatively smooth so we can get to normal duty, I'm sure you would rather be partnered with anyone else but me considering the ramifications" Robby seemed assured in himself that the way he acted during briefing had more than likely already garnered him a less than pleasant reputation with the other officers, however, he knew that he had to be as thick-skinned as possible or else he'll just be pushed around.

"Don't be so hard on yourself Elmore, we were all new once, I'm happy to be your partner" Officer willow said this in a very chipper manner, "Besides, this case is pretty much open and shut, you've got one of the best officers in the precinct as your partner" Officer willow was clearly a seasoned officer, She seemed like a good partner for Robby to have on his first day, and Robby was pleased to know he'd be working with someone whos competent, but he was going to remain wary of her nevertheless, as he always did with people he'd just met.

"Officers Elmore and Willow, please come to me, I have one small thing to discuss with you regarding this case". Robby and officer Willow strutted over to the Chief who called their names in a very stern tone. "Officers, this case is extremely important, Officer Elmore you may be new to this precinct but understand this" Chief Polaski knelt down to get better eye contact with Robby, "If you mess this up, you already know whats going to happen, but I forgot to mention that this particular criminal is more than likely in possession of a very dangerous weapon, used to turn animals primal, you probably know of the night howlers case, so you will probably understand how volitile the situation is, you WILL bring her in, you WILL recover any and all night howlers, or night howler weaponry that she has, or else you will be no more than a meter maid for the rest of you career, have I made myself one hundred percent clear officer?"

Robby's ears were as far back as they could possibly go, he took a huge gulp and answered, "Y-yes sir, I fully understand the situation, and we will have it resolved within the week". Chief Polaski snarled. "Good", He stood up to face officer Willow, "you won't be stuck on meter maid duty if you fail to bring Bellwether in within the week, but any chance of you getting promoted to detective will be out of the window, do I make myself clear?"

Officer Willow didn't even seemed phased by the threat, "Yes sir" She said, as loudly as her unnaturally timid voice would let here go. "Good, I don't want to see either of you until the case is resolved, if you need any resources Officer Trunkski will be the mammal to see for this operation, now get out there and bring in the sheep", Chief Polaski nodded too the two officers, and walked away in a such a manner that it seemed almost fitting to an army general rather than a police chief.

"So… Officer Willow, where should we start with this one?". Robby said, the worry was still noticeable in his voice. "Well Officer Elmore, I think the best place to start with would be the donut store 2 blocks down the road." Robby turned his head, seeming confused, "Why the donut shop? Does one of her accomplices hang around there?". Officer Willow Laughed, "No, if we're going to start such a big case I can't do it on an empty stomach, and I missed breakfast", Robby looked shocked, "Donuts? Didn't you hear what the chief said? Our careers are both over we don't get this solved within a week, this is definitely not the time for donuts." Officer Willow laughed again, "Officer, it's always time for donuts".

* * *

Authors notes:

Wow, I had so much fun writing this chapter. So lets get on with the obvious things, yes, I'm making bellwether Robby's first case, and this is going to be the majority of the first act of the story, I'm probably going to be averaging around 1500 words a chapter from now on because honestly I'm having so much fun writing I just wouldn't be happy putting any less, now, from this point forward we are going to be going a bit faster story-wise, I'll try and limit each day to 3 chapters from this point forward, however this is only my personal guideline so I'll probably not stick to it exactly.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter as much as I did writing it, Expect the next chapter in 2 days, although I may try and get a full chapter done tomorrow if I can find the time. And as usual this chapter is subject to change in the future, I will go over each chapter at some point in the future and try and fix grammar, continuity, character dialogue etc... If I feel like my future work is better than what I'm currently outputting I may rewrite large chunks of chapters, also, feel free to leave a review if you'd like, I'm always trying to improve.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: A Busy Breakfast.

"I've already eaten this morning, I'm not hungry", Robby sat in his seat in the cruiser, slumped down, worrying about the case and reading the files he was given to find out everything he could, but his partner was adamant they should talk about the case over breakfast, and as much as Robby refused Officer Willow would not accept it.

"Come on Elmore, you may have eaten but by the time we get there you'll be hungry, I guarantee it". Officer Willow nudged Robby to grab his attention when she noticed him reading the files.

"Ok, how about this, I'll have a cup of coffee and a cruller, but I'll be skipping lunch if I do", Officer Willow knew this was the best she'd get out of him, so she nodded her head in agreement.

"You better be ready for the best damn cruller of your life because I know I aint missing lunch and I do not share". Willow gave Robby another nudge to make sure he was listening, however in this instance he wasn't.

"Mhm sure thing", Robby was too interested in a piece of information he had come across to care about the conversation anymore, so he just agreed and carried on reading. The information that Robby found was relating to Doug Ramses, Bellwethers partner in crime during the original night howler incident, was released from prison early after giving information about bellwether to reduce his sentence, due to this he has been taken to a safe house until witness protection can get him to somewhere safe out of town.

"I think our first stop should be Ramses, He's actually not far from the donut stores location, we might actually be able to get some information out of him before lunchtime". Robby passed a picture of Doug to Officer Willow.

"This the chemist that created the night howlers?"

"Not just the chemist, also the marksman, he was on a few watch lists back in the day and the second he stops being monitored he instantly started working with Bellwether, it's pretty much assumed she got him off the watch lists and hired him, but that couldn't be proven according to this" Robby pointed towards Doug's section of the folder.

"Why was he put on a watchlist?" Officer willow passed the picture back to Robby.

"Doesn't say, it's probably classified." Robby put the pictured back into place with a paperclip and closed the folder. "Doesn't matter anyway, what matters is the fact that we need to speak to him as soon as possible, he can be found at this location" Robby put an address into the cruisers GPS, "once we're done at the donut store, we're heading straight there OK".

"Sure thing Elmore, but be prepared, once we get here you may never wanna leave, this place has the best coffee, and the best donuts in Tundra Town, ya heard it here"

"I'm not really a donut guy Willow, I always prefered to snack on insect packs, I just love those curry crickets more than anything."

"Oh yeah you're a predator, forgot you guys eat that stuff, if I have to be honest with you it makes me queasy at the mere thought of eating an insect" Officer Willow put her hand to her mouth in a motion that seemed as if she was about to vomit, and after a few seconds puts her hand back down onto the wheel again.

"Really? That bad huh" Robby seemed shocked that someone could even dislike his favourite snack, nevermind feel sick at the thought of it, but almost immediately he stopped caring and when back to reading the files.

After around 10 minutes of driving the two officers pulled up to a store called "Destiny's Donuts", the place had a really 1950's vibe, the signs for the place were neon, the flashy kind that turn on and off to really grab the attention of passers by, and on the inside were a row of stools against a long table attached to the window, each one had a cushion made of red faux leather and were clearly well kept, every few feet was a small jukebox, like the kind you would find in a diner, but instead of records it was all digital, so clearly the place was a themed store rather than a place just left behind in the times.

"This the place?" Robby nodded his head in the direction of the donut store, "You sure its not a diner?"

"I'm sure, the place has been my hang-out for the last 10 years Elmore, Why don't you walk in and take a seat? I need to make a quick phone call."

"Sure thing, you want me to order?"

"Don't worry about it, I'll order for both of us when I come in, they know me"

"Ok then, seeya in there" Robby jumped out of the cruiser, and started heading towards the donut store, "Goddam donuts, its 7:30am and we're getting donuts? I was hoping it would be at least 5 years before I became a cliché." Robby walked into the store, he saw a line of booths, with the same red faux leather as on the stools, he thought they looked comfier so he took a seat in the first booth he walked too.

After a few minutes of waiting, Officer Willow finally walked into the store and headed straight towards the counter, where she was greeted by a tall female hyena, wearing a white shirt and blue apron, "Heya destiny, I'll have the usual and a cruller for my partner here, and could ya put on a fresh batch of coffee? We have a long day ahead of us."

"Sure thing sweetheart, so, new partner?" Destiny leaned in and whispered "He's cute, you should keep this one" Destiny winked at officer willow.

"He's a fox, I wouldn't think that was your sortta thing Destiny" Destiny looked shocked.

"Honey he isn't my thing, but I heard of weirder couples than a fox and a rhino" Destiny winked again.

"Don't be weird destiny, besides, I doubt he'd be into that considering he hasn't even told me his first name yet, I get the feeling he's one of those all business no fun kinda guys, ya know?"

"Yeah I know, don't worry I was just teasing, anyway, go sit down, your food'll be over in a few" Destiny hanged a piece of paper containing officer Willows order onto a receipt spindle and sent it into the kitchen.

Officer wiillow went over to the booth where Robby was sitting, she wanted to think about the case but all she could think about was the fact that she missed breakfast, and a fresh box of donuts and fresh hot coffee were mere minutes away, as she went to sit in the booth with Robby her stomach rumbled very loudly, luckily the only other person in the building was Robby so she didn't worry about it too much.

"I found something interesting, it looks like Weaselton left zootopia around the same time Bellwether broke out, you think this is a coincidence?" Robby didn't take his eyes off the page, he already knew the answer, but he wanted some input to back up his theory.

"Definitely not, he's one of the major reasons she got taken down and everyone knows it, surprised he didn't leave earlier.

"Well either way we're out of luck on this one, all we have is Mr Big and we're gonna need clearance to speak to him, and Doug Ramses, the one we're about to speak too, the way I see this is once we've dealt with Ramses we head over to the fish market and see if we can pick up on anything suspicious"

"Sounds good partner, who knows, we might get lucky and find her shopping for grocery's"

"We could only wish to be so lucky." As the two officers stop speaking Destiny walked over with a jug of coffee in her right hand, and two coffee cups in the other.

"Freshly brewed coffee as requested for the two busy officers", Destiny layed down the two mugs, and filled up the first one for Officer willow, the way she usually has it, but signals to Robby to ask how he wants his coffee, however because he was busy reading through the files Robby didn't see her gesture, "Hey sweetheart, you looking for a pick me up?", Robby looks up quickly, as if disturbed from a daydream.

"Huh, oh yes, that'd be great, thank you ma'am"

"Ma'am? Honey ya'll cam call me destiny, Ma'am is way too formal for me, and do ya mind if I ask your name?

"Officer Elmore Ma'am"

"I said don't call me ma'am, you're not just a customer here, as long as you're with Jessy here you're family as far as I'm concerned, now whats ya first name? I wouldn't feel right you knowing mine but me not knowing yours now."

"My name is Robert Elmore, sorry, I'll call you destiny from now on"

"Robert? I'll call you Robby, its nicer, less formal" Destiny poured out Robby's cup of coffee until he gestured her to stop, "Well, if ya need anything else just call over to me." Just as she says this a bell rings behind the counter, "Oh, your orders ready, I'll bring it right over", as she says this she walks away behind the counter and into the kitchen.

Robby looks at Jessy confused, "What kinda donut store is this anyway?"

"It used to be a diner, they converted it but kept everything pretty much the same, besides, they still serve more than just donuts here." As if to be as perfectly timed as possible Destiny walked back over with one plate in her left hand with perfectly brown toast, a selection of jams and jellies, and assorted breakfest veggies, along with a smaller plate with a rainbow sprinkled donut as a side order, in the other hand was just a small plate with a glazed cruller, a small, twisted deep fried pastry, perfectly sized for a fox.

"Here ya are officers" Destiny put down the large plate and the side plate with her left hand "The usual for you jessy", and with her right hand she carefully placed the small plate with the sugary delight on the table, "And the fox delight for the newest member of the family", Destiny seemed as if she wanted to start another conversation but noticed a few customers come in through the door, "Hope ya'll enjoy, if ya need anything else just holler at me", Destiny left the two officers to reconvene their earlier conversation.

Before the two officers spoke again they both took a sip of their coffee, Robby had to sweeten his to taste first, and took a bite from their respective meals, Jessy decided to start with her toast, smuthering it in blueberry jam, no butter, and Robby just took a bite from his pastry and put it down to rest.

"So, your names Robby?" Jessy inquisited Robby even though he seemed uninterested on getting to know her on a personal level, however this one time Robby decided to humour her, just because he wasn't getting anything new from reading the case files over and over.

"Yep, and your is jessy, I assume?"

"Yeah, my mother hated it when people called me jessy, but I always prefered it over Jessica"

"I always preferred Robert, but feel free to call me whatever you feel comfortable with."

I'll stick with Robby, at least when we're not around civillians" Both Robby and Jessy had a small laugh, but almost immediately went back to a serious tone once the conversation was over.

After about 15 minutes had passed both Robby and Jessy had finished their food, Robby was back to reading the case files however and was happy to sit there all day reading, however he couldn't help but overhear Jessy's radio, "Officer Willow, please report in" the radio blared, it was obviously the voice of Officer Trunkski on the other end.

"This is Officer Willow"

"Officer, you've just been given permission to make a visit to the VIP, do you copy?"

"10-4 gotcha loud and clear" Jessy clicked off her radio, "Come on Elmore, we just got cleared out to visit doug" Robby looked at Jessy in shock.

"You called it in? so that's why you wanted to get breakfast first? Just to waste time? We could have used this time to get started on the fish market"

"Nah, I was just hungry and I knew we'd need clearance" Jessy stood up and prepared too leave, "But I thought you'd try and get me to go freeze my backside off at the market if I gave you a choice, you new officers always try that", Robby also stood up ready to leave.

"Goddamit, we have a week, do you not understand that?"

"I understand that perfectly Elmore, so whats a quick 20 minute breakfast out of an entire week?"

"Ok fine, I don't care, can we please just leave?"

"I wouldn't be standing if we werent", Jessy waved to Destiny, "Seeya same time tommorow Destiny" Robby looked at Jessy as if she had just punched a child.

"We are not coming here again tommorow, you better eat breakfast tommorow because we are working on this case non-stop until its solved", Jessy looked at Robby smugly, as if she knew what he just said was completely wrong.

"Of course we will Robby, of course we will".

* * *

Authors notes:

2300 words, wow these chapters keep getting bigger and bigger.

Now for a couple of things I need to mention, you may have noticed a difference in the way I approach dialogue in this chapter, this is due to a very helpful suggestion from reddit user u/justaquicki, the thing was actually pretty minor but it helps with the readability in such a large way I won't be going back to my old bad habits.

I also experimented a lot with dialogue in this chapter, I feel like I made it seem as natural as possible but I can't really critique myself fairly.

I also got this chapter done much faster than the last two because, honestly I'm having so much fun writing this that I just seem to come back to it no matter what, I cannot wait until we get into the more exciting bits later on, I have so many ideas but I'm gonna have to figure out which one to go with, anyway, a quick redaction on my last author note, it probably won't 3 chapters per day now as I feel like thats not really enough, I'm gonna try and get to the more fun parts as soon as possible, the next chapter should kick that off.

Anyway, thanks again for reading and feel free to follow, favourite and leave a review if you wish, and I'm always seeking to improve so be honest, I can take it.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Interview.

"Here we are Robby, you ready to take your first interview?" Robby and Jessy were sat in the cruiser, Robby was full of adrenaline, heart thumping a mile a minute but Jess was cool and collected, she'd already been through the process a thousand times over and it was near enough second nature to her, but she remembered her first time of having to question a suspect and thought about how much she was struggling to keep calm during the whole thing, she knew Robby would be feeling the same thing so she tried to talk it over with him before they went in.

"Yeah, I'm ready, I was born ready, this is gonna be easy", Robby's breathing picked up, as if he was coming close to having a panic attack, which for Robby was strange, he barely ever let his emotions get in the way of his work, never mind be so obvious in his paniced state.

"You ok Robby? You seem agitated."

"Yeah I'm good, I just need some air before we go in", Robby rolled down the window to let in the freezing winter air in.

"You're gonna be fine, he's in our custody and about to go into wit-pro, he's not gonna try anything". Robby wasn't worried about being attacked, in-fact he welcomed it, he knew he was great at hand-to-hand combat and could take down a mammal three times his size with ease, no, he was worried about screwing up the questioning, he was always top of his class with everything in the academy, but barely scraped a pass when doing anything related to questioning or speaking to other mammals in general, because he had no idea what signs to look out for if someone is going to break down crying or attack to shank him, due to the way he grew up he'd never really learned how to interact properly with others, even going so far as to not even be able to introduce himself to strangers, but now was the time when he had no choice, he had to take the reins on this one or look weak to his new partner, and that was the last thing he wanted.

"I'm not worried, lets get in there and do this", Robby rolled the window back up and opened the cruiser door, he proceeded to jump out and slam it behind him, after Jessy had also jumped out she locked the door and started to walk around, she pointed to the door that they were heading too and Robby started walking into its direction. Once they reached the door Jessy pushed a large metal button underneath a small speaker, this made a loud buzzing sound and once it stopped they heard a voice from the other end, "Who is it?" the voice shouted.

"Snowball Alpha Bravo" Jessy replied, as she does Robby gives her a strange look, she noticed his look and explained herself, "It's todays code, without it he wouldn't know if it was actually us", with that Robby made a face as if he'd just discovered fire, and then felt silly because it seemed so obvious.

"Of course, I knew that", He lied. After he said that another loud buzz rang through the speaker, this time a pleasant click on the large metal door to the side of it accompanied it, signifying that the door was unlocked.

"You first officer", Jessy put her hoof up to gesture Robby to open up and walk in the door, and with the gesture he did, and jessy then followed behind him, "Up the stairs first door on the right Robby", Robby walked up the stairs, unusually large for a mammal his size, more fitting for a larger animal like a bull or a rhino, but he had no issue taking them 1 at a time.

As the two officers approached the door that contained Dougs safe house, Jessy tapped Robby on the shoulder to make sure he'd be ok with questioning Doug, she knew it could be stressful and she was too kind-hearted to let him go in there without feeling good about the situation, "You gonna be cool with this? I can handle the questioning if you'd like and you take the next one".

"I'm good, I told you, this isn't gonna be a problem", Robby straightened out his outfit and rubbed his eyes, he then knocked on the door, unexpectant of how the Ram that he'd been reading about for the past hour was going to react to the questioning of his former accomplice, who is also the reason he's stuck in a safe house and more than likely wants him dead, but no amount of thinking could prepare him for having to actually speak to him.

The door opened from the inside, and out poked a a large head, covered in fluffy wool, this was definitely a ram, "mornin' officers, how can I help you today?"

"You can start by letting us in Doug", Jessy commanded, and just as she ordered him he opened the door and gestured the two officers to come in. As they walked in they couldn't help but notice the amount of garbage laying around on the floor, "You not been keeping the place very clean have ya doug?", jessy walked over to the couch with Robby, Robby was busy taking in the environment, the room was very plain, and when not covered in garbage would feel very empty, a dark leather couch was the main piece of furniture in the room, with a generically branded flatscreen TV in the corner, on top of a small TV stand and book holder.

the room was only kept alight by the ceiling lamp which didn't even have a lapshade, and if it wasn't for that the room would be pitch black due to the shut-out blinds on the window, the walls were grey and dingey, with not even a painting in sight, this was definitely a safe house. "Mr Ramses I'd like to ask you a few questions relating to your former associate Dawn Bellwether, would you like to take a seat?" Robby gestured towards the couch.

Doug closed the door, he'd kept it open in hope they'd leave quickly but he knew that wasn't happening, so he slammed it shut and walked over to the two officer, took a seat on his couch and nodded his head in a gesture to signify that they could start asking questions.

"Ok, first of all would you prefer to be called Doug or Mr Ramses?",

"Doug is fine"

"Ok doug, my name is officer Elmore, I'm gonna go through a couple of easy questions with you, the faster and more precise your answers the quicker we can get this over with and leave you be, I'm sure you'd much rather be doing anything other than talking to me right now so I'll try and be as quick and consice as possible also, is this ok with you?", Doug nodded in agreement, "Ok good, now the questions I'll be asking you are in reference to your ex-accomplice Dawn Bellwether, does this cause any issues for you?"

"No officer, anything to make sure that loon doesn't find out where I am is good with me"

"Ok good, now for the questions", Robby removes his notepad and pen from his chest pocket and prepares to take notes, "First question, When was the last time you were in contact with Dawn Bellwether?"

"Last time?" Doug seemed puzzled by the question, but Robby gave him a reassuring nod to make sure his answer was as accurate as possible. "Last time I spoke to her during our trial, when I testified against her to get time off my sentence, as you probably know officer"

"It was in your file yes, but just incase she had contacted you after this incident it was worth asking to be sure. Second question, what do you know about the recent prison break involving Dawn Bellwether? Please don't spare the details, we need everything we can get here."

"Jailbreak? Hah, I know less than you, all I know is whats on the TV, don't even get wifi in this place so if its not on the news I haven't heard about it"

"Well you have access to a phone, surely someone you know must have talked to you about it?" doug seemed to get angry from this accusation.

"Listen buddy, I don't talk to no one because all my calls are monitored and I don't want some creep listening in on everything I say, so instead, I speak to no one, so no officer, I know nothing about this jailbreak and if I did why would I ever think to tell you?"

"Fair enough, your past is evidence enough you wouldn't succumb to a guilty conscience", Doug became visibly angry with Robby's last remark, but he kept cool because he knew being insulted was better than being in jail, especially after snitching on someone, it was practically a death sentence. "Question three, Doug, if Dawn Bellwether was going to try and hide somewhere in Tundra Town what would be the most likely place she'd go?"

"Wait what did you just say?"

"I said if Dawn bell…"

"Yeah yeah yeah I heard that, did you just say she's here? In Tundra Town?"

"It is very heavily suspect that she is currently in Tundra Town, Which is why we came to see you first" Jessy butted into the conversation.

"You being near to the donut store also helped with that issue" Robby gave her a snide look for interupting him.

"Nevertheless, we need to get on top of this situation now, so if you know where she might be hiding, you'd be doing us, and yourself a huge favour" Doug quickly grabbed a piece of paper and a pen.

"Can I borrow your pen?" Robby passes his pen to Doug, and as he reaches his arm out doug snatches it as fast as he can and starts writing furiously on the small piece of paper, "Here, these are the only two places she would go, you better get her because if you don't she'll be coming for me and I'll be as good as dead, you understand?" Doug hands the piece of paper back to Robby, it contained two sloppily written addresses, this filled robby with a huge relief because it was almost too good to be true, that on his first case, on his first day would be solved within 2 hours of starting, he knew he'd gain a reputation around the office and it would actually be good.

"That's great, thank you doug, you've done a good thing today."

"Yeah yeah, just take her down, she is insane, and be careful, she was one of the few people who knew how to create the extremely potent night howler formula, and you being, well, you, you're not likely to be spared the feral treatment" What doug said sent a huge shock of fear down Robby's spine, just as it seemed too good to be true the reality sunk in, if he screwed up even a little bit not only will he be reduced to metre maid service for the rest of his career, but he could be drugged with the night howelrs or worse, killed.

"Trust me Doug, we'll take get her and send her back where she belongs, the two best officers on the force are on the job", Robby closed his notepad "I think that'll be enough questions Doug, thank you very much for your co-operation and if you have anything else to tell us feel free to call the station and either ask for me or officer Willow here."

"I will do officers, now we're done right?" Jessy patted Doug on the shoulder.

"Yeah, we're done dougy boy, enjoy your day", Robby put his notepad back in his pocket, forgetting about the pen he just left it with doug.

"Yes that will be everything Doug, we'll be leaving now", Robby stood up and made for the door, officer willow was already standing there with it wide open and ready to leave, "Thank you once again doug you were a big help" Robby walked out the door and waited for Jessy to also leave.

"You better be a good boy doug, would hate to have to come back here with a less fun reason" Doug walked over to the door to make sure it was shut properly after the two officers.

"Don't worry, I don't expect to be here much longer", Jessy walked out of the apartment and gave Doug a quick salute. As she does Doug slammed the door on her, Jessy put her arms back to her side and walked towards the stairs, down which Robby was waiting.

"You two met before this?" Robby inquired.

"Yeah, I was the first officer designated to his protection, I annoyed the chief and had to do it for a month before getting back to normal duty"

"Must have been exhilarating" Robby opened the large metal door that lead back outside.

"I can happily say officer Elmore, I would rather eat those disgusting curry crickets you mentioned before for and entire year straight than spend a single day with him again"

"I'll take you up on that one day" Robby and Jessy headed back to the cruiser as quickly as they could, they were both used to the cold but even for Tundra Town it was particularly chilly.

"Hey, at least theres a chance we can have this case done by today" Robby said excitedly as he waited for Jessy to unlock the door.

"Today? Hah, yeah right, make tommorow at best, we gotta get a warrant for both buildings, which would usually take at least two weeks, but in this case I'm sure we can get it rushed throught due to the urgency of the situation, and we need to have someone get eyes on the building to see who's going in or out once we do, so give it two days at best, five days at worst". Jessy unlocked the door and both officers jumped into the cruiser.

"So you're telling me we just have to wait around for up to five days?"

"Well, we could always go back to destiny's" Robby slammed his head against the dashboard of the cruiser.

"This is going to be a very long week".

* * *

These chapters are getting bigger and bigger, but it seems under 2500, over 2200 is my new mark, I feel like this story has been pretty dialogue heavy these past two chapters which isn't bad, in fact I'm loving writing this dialogue, its really fun, but I want to stretch my descriptive muscles, so next chapter I'm going to try and kick it up a gear, at this point I have two options, option one is go through the original plan of multiple chapters a day of Robby and Jessy just waiting around or, skip to the day where they're ready to take bellwether down, or at least the day before and do the build up too it, because once this case is over I'm going to be going into the larger overall story, I may add another shorter case inbetween this arc and the Judy and Nick arc I'll be doing, but either way hopefully within 3-4 chapters we will get the first lines of dialogue from Nick and Judy, which is also when the main story kicks in.

Anyway, thank you all once again for reading, I appreaciate every follow and favourite, and as usual reviews are very much appreciated, I'm hoping I've gotten to a point where it actually feels like I have enough work on the fic to critique.

And as usual the next chapter will be out within 2 days, however the amount I'm getting out at such fast rates I may change that to a day, because honestly I think I got this chapter written in just over 24 hours, I don't want to limit my self to 1 day though just incase I get a block or something important comes up that stops me.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Stake-Out

Robby sat alone in an unmarked cruiser, preparing himself for the raid on the warehouse that the ZPD had determined that Bellwether was hiding out in. It had taken nearly a weeks' worth of investigation from multiple teams to find this out, even with the information Doug gave them they still had to find out which building she was actually in and then get the warrant to raid the building, sitting across the street from Robby was a blacked out van filled with a T.U.S.K unit ready to go in guns blazing, they will be taking the first entry as agreed upon by chief Polaski, this was going to be one of the biggest raids of the century but it was kept extremely confidential due to Bellwethers previous associations in the Zootopian government, but the raid was expected to go off without a hitch.

Robby was very nervous about the raid, he knew if he messed up his part then the chance of Bellwether being taken in to custody was almost zero, he was designated to make the arrest while the T.U.S.K squad reined in the stragglers, this was his last chance to take her in within the week set by the chief, who had yet to even acknowledge this never mind take Robby off the hook. He knew that the chief wasn't going to be any kinder just because he found her, he needed her in cuffs before the chief would let Robby off the hook.

As Robby contemplated what was about to happen his partner, now in plain clothes, wearing an unmarked hoody and jeans, along with ZPD body armor with a badge on the right chest, entered the cruiser, she hadn't been working that day due to it being one of her few days off but she needed to be in for the raid, however plain clothes and armor was more than enough for the situation. Robby had been working all day and as such he was still wearing full uniform, but with the added body armor for extra protection, because it was highly suspected that Bellwether had a lot of goons with a lot of weaponry in the warehouse, which is why the T.U.S.K unit will be taking the first entry.

"How ya holding up partner?" Jessy asked as she sat down in the passenger seat of the cruiser.

"Awful, I got a good taste of what's to come if this doesn't go perfectly, parking duty for eight hours straight, then here for 4 more hours staking out the building, honestly, I've had better days. I'm glad you're here now though, takes a load off my mind". Robby and Jessy had become much closer over the last week, they'd been staking out the two buildings Doug had given them and had a lot of time to talk, Robby however still didn't consider her a friend, he enjoyed keeping their relationship strictly business, but also enjoyed a little bit of conversation and banter during their time together.

"Hey, chin up Robby, once this is over we'll be getting much better cases and you won't have to worry about parking duty, the chief will have no choice but to keep you working cases".

"Yeah, let's hope so, I didn't join the ZPD to become a damn meter maid".

"Why did you join? I know it aint the money, you looking for action? Car chases and shootouts?"

"Nah, nothing like that, I just want to help improve the world, and hopefully one day be a detective".

"A fox detective? Ha, that'll be the day", Jessy layed back in her seat and watched as Robby visibly became annoyed by the assumption she just made.

"What's wrong with that?", Robby tried to keep his cool, he knew she didn't mean much by it, it was pretty unheard of in the ZPD for a fox to even be an officer, never mind detective, in fact a fox detective was completely unheard of.

"Well, nothing wrong exactly, it's just never happened ya know, a fox as a detective just has never happened".

"Yeah? Well until last year there had never been a fox cop and look now".

"Yeah, look now, who knows, you might be the first".

"Not might, I will be the first fox detective, I'll make it happen", Robby placed his elbow on the window and rested his head against the palm of his paw, he was very tired at this point.

"Hey, I'll put a good word in for ya when I get promoted, I'm sure if they're looking for good officers they'll take you in a second".

"You better, you owe me after I got you on the case of the century".

"I could have taken the case if I wanted Robby, I just didn't want to".

"Of course you could of Jessy, of course you could".

A few hours pass by, Robby and Jessy continue to chat about the case and the futures of their careers, they have very little radio contact from the T.U.S.K van but every time they do call in its to say if someone is entering or exiting the building, what they were waiting for was confirmation of Bellwether entering the building, she hadn't been in all day and was confirmed to enter the building the same time every day.

It was 11pm before the radio started picking up, there were conversations about whether or not she was going to turn up with the chief on the other end making sure they stayed prepared for when she did, the T.U.S.K unit was getting restless and Robby was half asleep, Bellwether was nearly two hours late, which was a very bad sign, they were given one more hour before they raided the building, with or without confirmation of her being there, Robby protested this because he knew it was too risky, but the chief was adamant they got in there before they had time to clear the place out in the event that they were spotted on their stake-out.

"Where is she?" Robby slammed his paw against the dashboard, "she was supposed to be here so long ago, why the hell hasn't she turned up?", Robby looked towards Jessy, desperate that she might have had the answer but to no luck.

"I dunno Robby, its lookin' bad, she definitely arrived at 9pm every day right?"

"Every single day, why today of all days? Why did she have to not appear?

"If she spotted us there would have been a commotion, from what the squad are saying there's very little activity in the building, there's definitely people in there but not Bellwether, which means, unfortunately we will have to go in, I know you don't want too but getting a warehouse full of evidence and a lot of suspects is better than nothing".

"Not for me it isn't, I need her in cuffs, tonight, I'm not spending another second in a high-vis jacket printing tickets to morons who can't count to 30".

"Hey, I have my promotion to think about as well Robby, I'm sure the chief will let you off if we don't get her tonight, we found her and her goons, that'll be enough".

"Yeah, maybe, but I don't wanna take the chance". Robby sat back in his seat a little bit, he started to wake up due to the slight adrenaline rush from the thought of raiding the building for nothing, made a little bit worse by the thought of his whole situation. "Damn it she better turn up".

"We can only hope Robby".

As if by magic a car, matching the description of the one used to escort Bellwether turned a corner and pulled up to the warehouse, Jessy noticed it raises a pair of binoculars to get a better look.

"Sweet cheese and crackers I think she's here", She slaps Robby's arm which wakes him up fully.

"Sweet cheese and crackers?" Robby looked at her confused at her new mannerism.

"It's something a friend of mine says, I'll introduce you some day", Jessy laid the binoculars down and started to jump out of the cruiser, the car had left and two short shady figures had entered the warehouse, once they did Jessy made her way to the blacked-out van while Robby confirmed that is was Bellwether over the radio.

"Ok, you can confirm that Dawn Bellwether has entered the building.

"Yes Elmore, it's her, we're preparing to make our entry now, be ready to breach in 60 seconds", Robby prepared his weapon, a low calibre handgun that all ZPD are provided in events such as this, though usually most officers are provided with a tranquiliser gun to take down larger predators, but in this situation the officers are given the all-clear to use lethal force.

"Come on Robby, this is it, you're gonna prove them all wrong, you're gonna be a hero, you're gonna take down this sheep and put her away for good, you're gonna make detective and retire knowing you made a difference, this is the beginning of everything", after Robby finished motivating himself he bumped his chest and threw the cruiser door open.

"30 seconds Elmore, get over her now" Robby jumped out and closed the door behind him.

"Let's do this".

* * *

I apologize for the much shorter chapter but this was just supposed to link between the last one and the next couple of chapters, so we're reaching the conclusion of the character arc for Robby and after maybe 2 more chapters, we're going to head into the main story, I can confirm without spoiling anything Jessy will not be present after the end of this arc, it will be fully explained, and I'm pretty sure I've made it obvious why throughout the story, Yes, Judy and Nick will be very much present in the next arc, so thats gonna be fun.

As usual thanks for reading, feel free to follow and favourite, and I always appreciate a review, and as usual, expect the next chapter within 2 days and expect it to be over 2000 words again.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Raid.

Robby crossed the street to make contact with the T.U.S.K team as they were exiting the back of the van, Jessy was already there being briefed on their part of the intrusion into the building by chief Polaski.

"We're going to take the front entrance, she just entered the building so we should be able to catch make the arrest without too much resistance, assuming our numbers are correct on who has been in and out, we shouldn't be making more than forty arrests tonight, Officers Elmore and Willow, you'll be following us in the building after the entry squad clears out the first two rooms, you must stay behind us at all times, we are geared to deal with armed hostiles and you are not, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir", both Robby and Jessy answer at the same time.

"Once the first two rooms are cleared we'll be making our way through the main warehouse, this is a very dangerous area so you two will not be going through until you're given the all-clear, we have helicopters inbound to give us a birds-eye view through the skylights, if they give the all-clear to the T.U.S.K squad you'll be given the all-clear to move in, is that understood?"

"Yes sir", They answered simultaneous again.

"Once you have been granted access to the warehouse, we expect Bellwether to held up in the foreman's office at the top right of the building, we will attempt to confirm this with the helicopters, if not you will be given shoot-on-sight authority for anyone that gets in your way, you two will stick together and work as a team to clear every room in the building, if Bellwether attempts to make an exit we will be outside ready for her, so unless that happens it will be all up to you two officers, now I'd much rather have the T.U.S.K squad take care of bellwether but we'll need them to detain the larger and more threatening mammals, if she was a larger mammal, rest-assured you wouldn't be within fifty feet of this building Elmore, but since she's just a little sheep I feel like you can handle it, now get prepared and be ready to make your entrance, both of you".

"Sir yes sir", Robby and Jessy walked away from the chief to prepare themselves, they saw the T.U.S.K squad preparing their entry into the building, but just as they were getting ready to walk over the chief called over to them.

"Officers, make sure not to shoot yourselves in there", it was the chief's rather mocking, if still kind-hearted way of saying stay safe, and it made Robby feel a bit better about the situation.

Robby and Jessy were approached by the leader of the T.U.S.K squad a large warthog in an all-black armored ZPD uniform, and was given one last briefing before the raid was going to begin, "Ok, you guys have been briefed by the chief right?"

"Yes sir" Robby said with enthusiasm.

"Yep" Jessy looked back at the chief, as if she was trying to remind herself what she had to do and looking back was going to jog her memory.

"Good, so you know that until we give you the all-clear to look around the back areas of the warehouse, which will only happen if the VIP isn't holed up in the foreman's office."

"Yes sir" They said together in unison once more.

"Good, we're about to go in, so prepare yourselves officers, this could get a bit frisky very fast", Robby and Jessy looked to each other for comfort, knowing they were willingly about to enter a live fire zone was more than they had ever expected for the case, they were hoping the worst they'd have to do would be dragging Bellwether from a sewer, but this, they knew that it could be their last moments so they tried as hard as they could to savour every last second before having to enter the building.

A few moments later, the first T.U.S.K officer, another large warthog in an all-black armored ZPD outfit just like all the other T.U.S.K members, made the first breach, "Freeze ZPD" He screamed as he threw the door open and launched a flashbang grenade through, then backed off to let it detonate before they made their entry.

They made their way in with a mad rush of shouts and pointing guns, they managed to subdue three mammals in the opening office of the building, two rams and a weasel, then they took their time to enter and clear-out the proceeding rooms after the opening office, each time they did this a very loud and commanding shout would come from the room "Clear" they would scream, and they took their time to make sure the rooms were clear, and once they were they regathered in the office to prepare for their next entry.

"Ok officers you're clear to move in", came through on Robby and Jessy's radios, with that they made their way into the office, as they did they witnessed the previously subdued mammals being taken outside for further questioning and then to be shipped off to jail.

"When are we going in for the VIP?" Robby inquired with the squad leader, but was busy commanding the rest of the T.U.S.K squad to prepare for their entry into the main warehouse, so he ignored him and carried on preparing his officers.

"Once that chopper is in position and we get the all-clear we will be going in hard, keep your heads down and prepare for incoming fire from the catwalks, hopefully we'll be lucky and the majority of the perps will be on ground level" Robby raised his voice to get heard by the squad leader.

"Hey, when are we going in?" The squad leader turned to Robby with an annoyed look on his face.

"Be patient officer, like I explained outside we need to clear out the main warehouse before you're cleared for entry, I know it's annoying to be standing around waiting for so long but it's necessary for both your safety and ours, we wouldn't want you getting yourselves into trouble so one of ours gets shot saving you now would we?" with that remark the squad leader received a radio transmission from the helicopter team, they were confirming the situation inside the warehouse.

"We have eyes on three mammals on the catwalks, looks like they're all timber wolves, as for the rest they all appear to be workers, so as far as we can tell you have heavy civilian activity in the building, but we can't confirm anything else so stay vigilant, we will be keeping an eye out but there are some major obstructions below the catwalks"

"Roger that Heli team" The squad leader put his radio back to his shoulder and walked over to his officers to transfer the information over to them, while he was busy ordering his men Robby and Jessy were talking over there next moves.

"I have a bad feeling about this one Robby, this isn't your run of the mill criminal, Dawn Bellwether is cunning and manipulative mammal with links to the ZPD and the government as a whole, it wouldn't be too far a stretch to assume that she could know we're coming for her" Jessy was seeming more and more worried by the second, seemingly made this way due to the lack of any real resistance as of yet.

"Yeah, I'm not feeling good about it either, I mean, it says in her files that she despises predators, enough so that she was willing to drug them and cause a massive lockdown on predator activity, why the hell would she have wolves working for her? It makes no sense, in fact why would wolves even want to work for her? Before we head in I'm gonna go ask the detainees some questions, I'll be right back", and with that Robby left Jessy in the office, but quickly turned around to say "Call me when we're going in", and then he continued walking on to ask the wolves they just arrested some questions.

"Hello sir, may I quickly take your name and ask what you were doing in this warehouse today?"

"I ain't saying nothing cop, I aint a rat"

"No, you're a wolf, we're in Tundra Town not Little Rodentia, I wasn't asking your species I was asking what the hell you were doing here tonight, now depending on how you answer me you can either help your case or guarantee you get jail time, you wanna speak now?"

"I didn't do nothin', you got nothin' on me"

"Actually sir, we have you in the same building as a known criminal who recently escaped from prison, that's a charge for harbouring a fugitive, that along with the fact that there are multiple illegal weapons in the building leads me, and trust me, any judge that looks over this case, you and your buddies here were doing it willingly, meaning you will get a lot of time, not even considering the weapons charges we'll get you on, however, I'm giving you a chance to clear your name, tell me, why is Dawn Bellwether hiring predators to protect her?"

"Dammit fine, I never liked her anyway, just tell me you'll get me off if I tell you what she's doing?"

"If you're willing to testify in court you'll be considered a witness and even be given a chance at getting into witness protection, depending on how much useful info you have"

"Ok Ok, she's planning to release that night howler garbage to the streets as a drug, from what I've heard its way different to what it used to be, its supposedly slow reacting and takes days, even weeks before it has an effect"

"Damn, this isn't good, how much does she have?"

"I dunno exactly, something like three or four warehouses full"

"What?!"

"Yeah man, that stuffs gonna be hitting the streets in no time"

"Where are the other warehouses? Tell me!"

"I dunno man, you're lucky I even knew that, I overheard it the other week and kept my mouth shut, I've seen what she does to snitches and it ain't pretty, you better get me in witness protection or I'm as good as dead"

"Yeah yeah, wait here I need to speak with my higher ups about this", Robby walked away from the wolf, but quickly told another officer not to let him be taken away until the chief gets to him, after that he went back to the unmarked van looking for him, he went to the back of the van and found the chief staring at some old CRT monitors, clearly outdated but working. "Chief, we have a big problem"

"What is it Elmore?" The chief took off a pair of headphones and turned to Robby to hear what he had to say better.

"I was just questioning one of the suspects and I managed to get him to tell me about Bellwethers plan, she's been building up huge amounts of a new night howler drug that's going to be sold on the streets as a recreational, but has an extremely delayed effect that can take days or even weeks to have the main effect on the takers, which leads me to believe…"

"…She's going to try and get it sold in poorer neighbourhoods, mostly populated with predators, and turn them all savage, dear god this isn't good, how much does she have?"

"Four or five warehouses full of it sir, according to the wolf."

"Where are they? We need to get to them and shut them down immediately"

"I don't know sir, the wolf only told me the amount, not the locations."

"Then we need to get Bellwether immediately, sorry Elmore but this isn't your case anymore, we need to guarantee she's taken in and I can't have you and officer Willow putting yourself in this situation, especially considering she has access to the night howlers, which you don't have protection against."

"But sir, this is our case, we did all the work and…"

"I understand Elmore, but it's too dangerous, I'm sorry, but consider yourself off the hook, our little deal is done and you're not going to be stuck on meter maid duty for the rest of your career, just stay out of the way on this one" Robby took a sigh of relief at hearing he wouldn't be stuck as a meter maid, but he was also angry that he wouldn't be able to finish the case, "Thank you sir, I'll go get officer Willow and alert her of the news"

"I'll radio it in to her, go home and get some sleep Elmore, you deserve it"

"Thank you sir", Robby stepped out of the van and started heading towards his cruiser, he undid the straps on his body armor to relieve himself a little bit. Robby felt saddened and defeated, knowing he wouldn't be the one to make the arrest in the case of the century, he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep that night.

Just as he reached his cruiser Robby noticed something out of the corner of his eyes, smoke, huge puffs of blue smoke coming from the helicopter, and with that he knew something awful was about to happen, he called the chief on his radio to alert him but before the chief could respond the loud sound of the helicopter moving down at a very high speed burst through the eardrums of everyone within the city radius, it was the loudest crashing sound you could imagine, finishing with the sounds of the helicopter rotors spinning the blades into the ground hard enough to both break the concrete and shave the blades down to a nub, Robby ran over to try and help but as he got closer he saw a sight he didn't expect, rather than the lifeless corpses of his fellow officers, he instead discovered the raving movements of multiple, seemingly savage leopard officers, raving around scratching at the windows and growling loudly.

Robby knew exactly what had just happened, and that's what frightened him the most, Bellwether had created a weaponised version of the night howler formula in a gas-based weapon.

Robby tried to get to the helicopter as fast as possible but it was too late, it blew up taking the savage officers with it, a huge puff of fire and smoke blew grew above the helicopter with a deafening explosion, Robby feel down with the explosion and got slightly knocked back by it.

"Oh my god, she's crazy, I need to take her down", Robby ran past the helicopter to get to the van and see if the chief was ok, as he approached he could hear a lot of shouting coming from inside, it wasn't just him, it was coming through his radio. "Chief, what the hell is going on?"

"Elmore, I wasn't quick enough, the T.U.S.K squad had cleared the warehouse and let officer Willow in, but they've been locked in and the room is filling up with gas, all I can hear on the other side is screaming and, I hate to say this but I think they've been turned savage by the night howlers"

"Yeah, from the looks of it Bellwethers created a night howler gas, before the chopper went up I could hear really loud growling coming from it, I'm sorry sir, there was nothing I could do, the chopper blew before I could even get close to it"

"You did all you could Elmore, these officers will be praised as heroes, but right now we have no teams equipped to go it, and we only have one gas mask available, Elmore, I know I said I didn't want to put you in danger but right now we have no other choice, are you willing to put on this gas mask and enter the building, right now all we can do is arrest Bellwether, if you're willing to I'll make sure you have a medal by the end of this."

"Sir, you don't have to convince me, I'm going in there"

"Do not screw this up Elmore, you would not be going in if I had any other choice, but officers from all over Zootopia have been called in and first response won't be for another 15 minutes"

"Yes sir", Robby strapped the gas mask to his face, luckily it fit him pretty well and was designed for mammals with long snouts, as he did he got double checked by the chief to check for gaps, even a single breath could turn him savage at this point.

"Ok, I'm going to continue monitoring the situation from here, if you believe yourself to be in too much trouble leave immediately, if you turn savage there's no guarantee we'll be able to get you back out of there safe"

"Sir, I'm not leaving that place without Bellwether in custody"

"Good, now get in there, you have an entrance from the side door straight into the building, be careful".

"Sir yes sir", Robby once again left the unmarked van and headed towards the warehouse, he wasn't worried anymore, just angry and filled with adrenaline, he was ready to do what was needed to save the day and finally bring in Bellwether.

As Robby walked to the side entrance he noticed that the gas was already pouring out, the door was open, and he knew he'd have to try and seal it shut when he went in, otherwise he would risk the savage officers escaping and causing havoc in the city, and he did, he opened the door, slammed it behind him and sealed it shut with a metal bar, it wasn't a perfect seal but the drugged mammals wouldn't be able to get out, and that's all that mattered.

"Where are you hiding Bellwether?" Robby was speaking to himself to remain calm, his vision was very blurred due to the thick smoke, he knew he had to find a way to clear the place out, "Don't places like this usually have industrial air filtration systems?" Robby pondered on how to find and activate such a thing if it's even possible, or even exists.

Robby made his way through the building but he knew he had to get higher up to get to grips with his new environment, so he decided to climb up some large shelves to get to one of the lower hanging catwalks that appeared to still be covered in smoke, but lesser so than the lower areas, he climbed up once shelf at a time, making sure to be extra careful, he didn't want to fall and risk losing his mask in such a volatile situation.

Once he reached the top of the shelves he had to make one final reach for the catwalk, being as short as he is it was just about reachable for him, and with all his energy he managed to drag himself onto the platform, he rested for a few seconds to catch his breath, the gas mask was making it more difficult than usual to breathe so he wasn't as athletically sound as he would usually be.

After Robby finished catching his breath he rose to his feet and tried to get a better view of what was below him, and to his horror, it was complete carnage, the entire T.U.S.K squad had reverted to primal beasts, running around all floors, screeching and squealing loudly, ramming their heads into walls and attacking anything in sight, along with the civilians that were supposed to be escorted out, there were sheep, wolves, pigs and goats, running around on all fours, attacking each other and causing complete mayhem, Robby wanted to help them but he knew he couldn't, he'd be eaten alive if he even tried.

Robby noticed the absence of one animal that he expected to be causing the most havoc out of all of them, a rhino. Officer Willow was nowhere to be seen in the carnage below and Robby took huge breath of relief, "Maybe she made it into the back and got away from the night howler gas", Robby knew if she was in the back that meant she may have already detained Bellwether, without a second to lose he sprinted in the direction of the foreman's office, noticeably void of smoke, its door leading to the back area was open which lead Robby to believe the back areas where sealed off from the smoke.

Robby made his way into the foreman's office tracking in as little smoke as possible, he made his way through the open door into the back areas and decided to risk taking off his gas mask, it looked completely clear and he wanted to have as much visibility as possible in the darkened hallways. The hallways Robby was in was filled with doors on opposite sides of each wall, these clearly led into small offices, Robby checked each one individually, while looking for both Bellwether and Jessy.

It was nearly five minutes of constant searching before Robby even found a sign of life in the form of two mammals shouting, it sounded like Jessy and an unfamiliar voice, Robby figured that Jessy found Bellwether and was reading her the Miranda rights, he raised his weapon just in case and made his way towards the shouting.

As Robby made his way into the office, prepared for anything, he found himself in shock at the sight he came across, Bellwether and Jessy were arguing, and all Robby caught was Jessy saying "You said no one would get hurt". Robby ran into the room weapon raised.

"Freeze ZPD!" Robby screamed at the top of his voice, both Jessy and Bellwether were visibly shocked by Robby's sudden entrance, but they both turned to him and suddenly they weren't shocked, they seemed complacent, in-fact they seemed happier at him appearing.

"Robby, how did you get in here?" Jessy said, she started walking slowly towards him.

"It doesn't matter how I got in but I'm glad I did, you were working with her the whole time? It makes no sense, you didn't even try to throw me off the trail, what do you even gain from this?"

"Robby, come on, of course I didn't throw you off the trail, it was inevitable that Bellwether would be arrested but she made me an offer that would benefit both of us."

"And that is?" Robby took a step back and pointed his gun at Jessy, causing her to stop in her tracks, as he did this Bellwether jumped off of a seat and made a move towards Robby"

"Becoming detective is all officer Willow here ever wanted, she gets the arrest of the century weeks after applying to become a detective, and when she does become a detective, I have one of the city's finest working for me, I need someone sent to the inside with few questions? Officer Willow can have it done, I need a particular snitch in witness protection found? She has the information I need, however as you can probably tell that's all useless now."

"Useless? Why?"

"Is the exploded helicopter and warehouse filled with savage mammals not big enough of an indication? This turned from me handing myself in peacefully and getting out in 10 years with good behaviour into a slaughterhouse, and I don't even know what's going on anymore."

"You didn't do this? Then what the hell happened?"

"Honestly officer, I don't know, it appears my lack of chemistry skills meant that my new night howler serum reacted badly with something else in the warehouse.

"Then how did the helicopter go down?"

"The air conditioning must have sent some of it straight out of the roof into the helicopter, it's the only way I see it happening", Robby pointed his gun at bellwether, and started switched back and forth between them both.

"Either way, it doesn't matter, you're both going to jail for a very long time", Jessy started walking towards Robby again, clearly not frightened by him and his gun.

"I don't think that will be happening Elmore, it's been fun but you're clearly not gonna be bought out or join in on the plan, so I'm gonna have to kill you", With that Jessy launched herself at Robby, who attempted to take shots at her but she was so fast he missed her twice and hit her once on her body armor, she rammed her head into him as hard as she could, her horn only just missing his lower stomach, and going off the side of him it still sent him flying into a wall behind him, Robby using the dark to his advantage crawled away into the darkened hallways.

Jessy recovered herself and started searching for him, however she had difficulty seeing in the dark, something that Robby had over her and could use to his advantage. "Robby, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, come back to me and we'll hug it out", Jessy seemed deranged, she was shouting out to Robby to try and intimidate him, it wouldn't work.

Robby had managed to do a full loop of the offices and snuck up behind Jessy, he knew his weapon wouldn't be strong enough to take Jessy down, Rhino skin is thicker than body armor, however, it he managed to shoot her in the head he figured he could knock her out cold and use the few minutes he had to cuff her before she woke up, he counted to three in his head, turned the corner and fired furiously at Jessy, who was walking away from him looking for him in the darkness, out of his seven shots, five hit, and as expected Jessy slammed into the floor, Robby didn't have time to check if she was alive or not, and at this point he didn't even care.

After he finished cuffing her he made his way back into the office, Bellwether was sat down seeming to be rather displeased that he walked in instead of Jessy. "Well, that was unexpected".

"Shut up, you're under arrest, put your hands behind your head" Bellwether stood up and reached behind her head.

"Officer, be reasonable, surely there's something you want that I could make happen, my connections run deep in this city, you could be the chief of city central within a year if I say so", Robby walked closer to Bellwether, getting angrier with every word she said.

"There is nothing you can offer me, you being put away is all I need".

"Very well officer, take me in", Robby grabbed Bellwethers arms, restrained her and put her in cuffs, it was finally over, he read Bellwether the Miranda rights and called in the arrest to the chief, after around ten minutes of waiting a flurry of officers from all over Zootopia's separate precincts flooded the building, they managed to clear out the smoke and restrain all the savage mammals, Robby explained the situation with Jessy and Bellwether to the officers coming in to escort them out of the building.

As they left the building the chief noticed that Jessy was in cuffs and barely conscious, Robby had forgotten to tell the chief that she went rogue and was working with Bellwether the whole time, the chief, after being told what happened had a look of shock and disappointment on his face. Polaski walked up to Robby to check on him "How are you doing Elmore?" He asked.

"Not too good chief, took a big hit in there, think I broke a couple ribs"

"Well your alive and that's all that matters, get yourself to the medics, get yourself fixed up and be ready, we're going to give a press conference tomorrow, if you can stand then you'll want to be there, as the lead officer on this case you'll need to give full accounts to the media".

"This was a hell of a night sir",

"Yes, it was Elmore, thank you for doing what was necessary, you will be rewarded for this?"

"Rewarded sir?"

"Well, City Central is still looking for a detective and their top priority just got arrested, you may not have the experience but you have the capabilities, it might take a few more months to go through but you'll be making detective Elmore, if you're willing of course, being the first fox detective would be very good for the ZPD's image, never mind that you started a week ago."

"Sir, there's nothing I'd like more than to be detective, but a week is nowhere near enough experience, surely you know this?"

"Six months Elmore, you keep up this good work for six months and you'll be detective."

"You're not kidding about this, are you?"

"Elmore, I never joke, now get out of my sight, you need to get patched up"

"Thank you, sir,"

* * *

This is my biggest chapter yet, and no, this isn't the end of the story, or even the end of the first act, in fact we have one more chapter of this act then we're heading on to the Judy and Nick parts I promised, I realise this feels like a climax to a story but it isn't, the main focus of the story was kicked off in the chapter, and from this point forward it will be getting darker, and darker, you'll probably notice how it transfers later on but for now, lets focus on ending act 1 with a nice cooldown chapter, which should be done within two days.

As usual thanks for reading, feel free to follow and favourite, and reviews are always appreciated!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Press Conference.

Chief Polaski was standing at a podium covered in microphones, each of which belonged to a different news station, he was going over his notes on what to say to the press and once he was ready he began his opening speech.

"Ladies and Gentlemammals, yesterday at around 11:30 PM, we arrested the known criminal and prison escapee Dawn Bellwether, we also arrested an officer who assisted her in a plot for personal and political gain, an investigation into police corruption is currently under way, this would not have been discovered if not for her partner, Robert Elmore, taking drastic action and uncovering the plot during the chaos caused by Bellwether's new night howler formula in the form of a massive gas cloud, I can confirm that every officer within the warehouse was recovered successfully with only minor injuries, and are on the fast track to recovery as we speak, and finally, a full team of four officers were killed in the incident, they were on our helicopter team and took in a large amount of the night howler gas, this caused them to lose all higher brain function and brought the helicopter down, unfortunately we could not recover any officers from the wreckage as the fuel tank exploded almost immediately, the officers families have been alerted and we are investigating into who is to blame for the gas cloud being created, thank you all and I will now pass you on to the officer who solved the case, Officer Robert Elmore"

Chief Polaski stretched his arm out to introduce Robby, who was still bandaged up from the night before, he didn't have any broken bones but he did fracture two of his ribs, he had also prepared some notes on the case in preparation for the conference. He walked over to the podium and stood onto a stool that had been put there for him so he would be able to reach the microphones and keep eye contact with the crowd of journalists. The journalists shouted franticly to grab Robby's attention, Robby pointed towards a moose working for a local news station.

"Wesley Antlersberg, Zootopia Action News, As the partner of one of the arrested individuals what is your stance on corruption in the police?"

"My stance is that it is completely unacceptable, I won't tolerate it and neither will anyone else in the ZPD, next question please", the mayhem to get a question in began again, Robby pointed towards a honey badger in the very front of the crowd.

"Mary Badgebert, Zootopia gazette, is there a chance that the night howler formula may cause predators to go savage again, and if so will the ZPD and the medical services be prepared in such a situation?"

"There is zero chance that there will be predator attacks again, any and all night howler formula has been recovered and destroyed, and in the very unlikely circumstance that it was to happen the ZPD would be completely prepared to deal with it just as well as they did last night, thank you. I'll take one more question before I leave", once again the struggle to get noticed begins, Robby points towards a cheetah who seemed more desperate than anyone to get a question out.

"Angelica Spotsworth, City News, according to a source who wants to remain unnamed, you, officer, left the building moments before your helicopter team was taken down and your fellow officers were sent into a frenzy, so my question is how do we know you were not also involved in your partners scheme?", Robby glared at the reporter, shocked at their accusations.

"That is ridiculous, I joined the ZPD to help this city, not to convene and plot with criminals to help myself, the mere fact that you are even accusing me of this is insulting and downright ridiculous"

"Is it really that ridiculous though officer? You only recently joined the ZPD, your status as a new officer would mean you could easily be convinced by your peers, it wouldn't be the first time"

"I'm not going to entertain your delusions any further, that was the last question, I'll now hand you over to chief Polaski to take any further questions regarding the future of this case", the cheetah was clearly upset at his avoidance of the question and tried to get his attention back.

"Officer, if you're not guilty of anything than you should have no issues answering the question", Robby walked away from the podium, ignoring the cheetah as he did, the chief gave him a quick pat on the back and took the podium.

"Thank you very much honorable members of the media, officer Elmore has had a very busy week and he doesn't need unwarranted accusations being thrown around after such a stressful night, from this moment further all questions will either be about the case, not involving officer Elmore or they won't be answered, ok first question, you in the front"

Robby walked away from the stage and went straight for the door that led outside, he felt stressed after being accused of being the bad guy after everything he did. Once he got outside and stopped hearing the chaos coming from the press conference coming from inside the city hall, he sat down against a wall and slammed the back of his head against it, and he let out a shout as loud as he could, he knew no one inside could hear him, something inside him was bubbling up, it wasn't the reporter, something deep inside him was coming up, he felt betrayed and broken, it took him a full night but it had finally hit him that his partner betrayed him, she used him for her own gain and even tried to kill him for trying to stop her.

Robby let out a tear, he hadn't cried since he was a child but for some reason this hit him harder than anything he'd experienced in a long time, "GOD DAMN IT" he screamed again, threw himself up and wiped his eyes, he rubbed the back of his head with both hands but it didn't help, he threw a punch at the wall, which hurt… A lot, he then threw himself back to the floor while gripping his hand, "Ouch, ow, ow, ow goddamit, ow", he layed his head back against the wall again.

Just as he did another mammal stepped out of the door that Robby just exited through, it was the cheetah from before, she noticed Robby sitting and tried to avoid eye contact, but she couldn't help but try and get more out of Robby, "Officer Elmore, I know you said you wouldn't be answering any more questions, but you never did answer me"

"You want to know how you can tell if I'm a criminal or not? Is that your question? Are you asking this because you're genuinely wondering, or are you just asking because I'm a swifty, untrustworthy fox?"

"We're all predators officer, I have no bias, just a need to get the truth"

"No, I'm not on Bellwethers side, I left the building to question a perp and then got sent home due to certain revelations that I can't discuss, then the helicopter came down and the gas was released, I went back in at my own risk and discovered Bellwether and Willow discussing their plan and I took them down. That enough for ya?"

"Thank you officer Elmore that was great, you're gonna make the story of the year", the reporter walked away looking smug and starting to make a phone call, Robby stopped feeling sorry for himself and stood back up and also walked away, he wasn't needed anymore and he had the day off to recover.

He approached the nearest road and attempted to hail a taxi, after a few minutes one pulled up and let him in, he asked to be taken back to his apartment, while being driven away from city centre, back to Tundra Town where his apartment was based, he started thinking to himself, pondering, how he was going to deal with the next six months, having to keep himself busy, until he is made detective he'll never get a case as big as the Bellwether case.

After a few minutes a taxi pulled up to him and he jumped in the back, he asked the cabby to take him back to his apartment in Tundra Town and they set off, Robby used his time in the taxi to think over the events of the last week, he wondered if he should have just kept his mouth shut when the chief overlooked him, he wondered what would have happened if he had left five minutes earlier and never saw the chopper go down, but then it hit him, he realised that he was going to be detective in six months, he's going to be achieving his dreams, for the first time in a long time, he smiled.

* * *

Author's notes:

Another short chapter I apologize, but this is the end of the first act of the story, now I need to make a difficult decision, and that decision is whether I'm sticking with telling the story through Robby or if I'm going to switch it to Nick and Judy, I'm leaning towards switching but honestly I'm not sure, I may take a bit longer getting the next chapter out because of this and I apologize again.

Anyway, thank you all for reading and feel free to follow, favorite or even leave a review, its always appreciated.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: A new beginning.

"Nick! Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick! He's going to be here soon we'll deal with that paperwork later I wanna be here to welcome him, you should be so much more excited about this" Judy Hopps was bouncing with excitement at the idea of there being another fox officer in the precinct, admittedly she was excited on the behalf of Nick Wilde, who she assumed cared, and he didn't.

"Hopps, I told you, this isn't a big deal, it was inevitable there would be another fox on the force soon enough, this isn't the ZPD of two years ago, things have changed.

"Nick, come on, he's the second fox ever to join the ZPD, and he's been made detective six months after joining the ZPD, he should be an inspiration to all foxes everywhere, especially you."

"Judy, do I make you meet and greet every new rabbit officer that comes through this place?"

"Well no, but that could have something to do with the fact that there hasn't been a new rabbit officer in this precinct, ever."

"No, but they are in other precincts, so if I was to make you go meet them it would be a rather big inconvenience wouldn't ya say?"

"That's completely different, we have to walk to the lobby and say hi, not drive to an entirely different place"

"No, you're right, but it is exactly 63 steps to the cruiser from here, and 75 steps to the lobby, and then at the cruiser, I get to sit down again, in the lobby I don't, and this is the first time in a month that I haven't been on my feet for eight hours straight, and I'm going to enjoy it."

"Well Nick you wouldn't of been on foot patrol for a month if you hadn't swapped Bogo's sugar for salt now would you?"

"He had it comin', he called me a glorified house duster with legs, I couldn't just take that sitting down"

"No, so you had to stand up for a whole month, wonderful."

"Worth it"

"Nick, we are going to meet him whether you like it or not"

"Gargh! Fine, but I'm taking the latter option"

"Good, let's go", Judy put her hands together in excitement, span around and hopped out of the office, she noticed nick was still sitting and yelled at him "Get up Wilde, you can't take it back now!", nick slowly dragged himself out of his chair, his body ached due to his month of torture at the hands of his evil boss.

Judy, and eventually Nick reached the lobby, they had a few minutes to waste before their new colleague arrived, they passed the time by talking, and at some points arguing, well, mostly arguing, but nevertheless it passed the time, after about fifteen minutes of standing around he finally arrived.

Through the front door of the ZPD came an arctic fox, well dressed, wearing a three piece suit, with a black blazer and matching slacks, with a dark grey suit vest, with red and black striped tie, though his attitude didn't match his exterior, he seemed calm and relaxed, but had a very obvious tint of an underlying sadness in his eyes, it wasn't obvious to everyone, in-fact nick was the only one to notice, he knew foxes well, and he read this one like a book.

Judy and Nick patiently waited for him to approach the desk, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible as to not alert him that they were waiting for him, and as he approached the desk he looked around but couldn't see anyone behind it, in-fact Nick and Judy were the only ones there, this was planned so they would be the first ones to speak to him, Nick didn't know this but Judy wanted to guarantee they spoke.

"Hi there, I'm new here, just promoted from Tundra Town, I was wondering if you could point me to where I could find Chief Bogo?" The new officer asked politely, knowing it would be the best way to get a response.

"Oh yes, you're officer Elmore right? We heard you were coming today, my name is Judy Hopps and this is my partner Nick Wilde, we're very excited to meet you, oh, and you'll find the chief in his office, up the elevator and three rooms down on the left"

"Well, thank you very much, and its actually an honor to meet you both, I read extensively about your work on the original Dawn Bellwether case, it was an extraordinary read"

"It was an extraordinary case" Nick took the reins on the conversation for Judy, who was too busy trying to stop herself squealing at the thought of Nick getting on with Robby, "If you ever want to get a first-hand account of the whole thing me and my partner here will be more than happy to go over it sometime"

"Oh, I wouldn't want to bother you with that, besides, that would take the magic out of it wouldn't ya say, like watching the behind the scenes sections of a movie"

"I guess you could say that, well, if you ever need anything me and officer hopps here have a specific knowledge on being the only ones of our kind in this place"

"I'll take you up on that, anyway, gotta go, I'm already running late because of the traffic, I'll seeya around", Robby gave a little smile to Judy and walked away, as he did he muttered under his breath, "Please never speak to me again".

Nick and Judy were still standing around, neither of them heard what Robby said so they were pretty happy with the result of their conversation, "I think he likes us Nick! You two hit it off really well".

"It went as well as can be expected Hopps, anyway, I have paperwork to do and a chair to sit on, so if you wouldn't mind, I'm going to go and do both of those things, and only enjoy one of them"

"Gosh Nick, never knew you enjoyed paperwork so much", Nick laughed as sarcastically as he could.

"Before I go rabbit, remember to not bother me for the rest of the day"

"As if Nick"

"I mean it, I scratched your back so you scratch mine, I wanna be sat down for the rest of the day"

"I'll think about it" Judy gave Nick a little wink and walked away from him, Nick also walked away, back to his office where he would spend the rest of the day.

Meanwhile outside chief Bogo's office, Robby prepared himself, eager to get work again after a short hiatus due to his new promotion, he knocked on the door preparing to make his entry but was greeted with a shout commanding him to wait outside, he obliged and waited to be called in.

After a few moments a wolf officer exited the room, seemingly in a rush to get back to whatever he'd been doing before, with the officers exit Robby was called into the office, he did so and closed the door behind him to keep the conversation inside the room.

"Who are you?" chief Bogo didn't even look up from his desk, he was completely concentrated on some files on his desk.

"Umm, I am officer Robert Elmore sir, well, detective now, I've been transferred here from Tundra Town and today was the day I was told I would be starting"

"Oh yes detective Elmore, you're late, I hope this won't be a regular occurrence?"

"Definitely not sir, I'm moving into my new apartment tomorrow so I had to come from Tundra Town today and got stuck in the morning traffic, it won't happen again"

"Good, now get out of my office and get to work"

"Umm sorry sir, but I have no idea where I should be going, this is my first time here after all", Bogo sighed and leant back in his chair.

"Go out the door, head all the way down, turn right and you'll see a load of brand new offices, yours will be marked with your name, I think, if you don't see your name, take whatever office you fancy, I really don't care"

"And how will I be receiving my assignments sir?"

"Once you're set up I'll have Clawhauser assign you a case, if any are available, if not, expect to be sat around doing bugger all for a while because honestly, I was fine with the detectives we have, but for some reason the mayor was right up my tail to bring in a new load, so just remember, you're not here because you're wanted, but because you're necessary, don't think it's because you did so well in your six months as an officer either, you're a glorified beat cop who doesn't have a beat, now please, get out of my office, I am very busy"

"Y-yes sir", Robby left the room, closing the door carefully behind him, "I like this guy" he said to himself as he walked away. Robby made his way to his office, and as promised his name was marked on one, he made his way in and took in a large breath, "So this is it, I made it, faster than anyone would have thought, I am a detective, ha ha!" Robby threw himself onto his office chair, he span around on it for a few seconds and then stopped, he tried to log in to his computer, luckily it was the same username and password as his previous precinct.

Robby checked his emails and his social media accounts, he was pleased to see no one was trying to talk to him, which, Robby loved more than anything, he hated being sociable ever since he was betrayed by the last person he could have considered a friend, not that he really considered himself a socialite before, he just hated to spend time and speak to others much more than he did in his early years.

Robby heard a knocking on his door, it was Clawhauser the cheetah, "knock knock detective, I have a nice bunch of files for you to go through"

"Umm, come in officer…"

"Clawhauser, don't worry, you'll get used to hearing my name, I'm the life of this place, anyway, I have some files the chief wanted me to give all the new detectives, you're the first one in so you get the first load", Clawhauser handed Robby a huge pile of neatly stacked files.

"And what are these? Cases?"

"What? Oh gosh no, these are just your release forms, your insurance, things like that"

"Wait what? I thought all that stuff was dealt with?"

"Maybe for your old precinct, but you're in a new, much more dangerous job, in a new place, it doesn't just get automatically updated, besides, you're going to be carrying an actual gun all the time now, that on its own takes up about two-thirds of the paperwork"

"All this just to be able to use a gun? Any chance I can opt-out?"

"Yeah, but it involves you quitting or retiring, and I'm sure that'll require just as much paperwork"

"Well, I guess it's not worth it then, ok I'll get to work on this right away"

"You might as well, I doubt you'll even be put on a case for a couple days, it's been a really slow week and even the other detectives are struggling to find something to do"

"Well still can't be as boring as my old position, all we ever did was drive around and cuff up teenagers for painting on buildings."

"Well, that still sounds more fun than what you'll be doing to pass the time"

"And what would that be officer Clawhauser?"

"You'll find out detective, I don't wanna spoil it for you, anyway, I'll catch ya later, I have a box of sprinkled delights with my name all over it"

"Goodbye officer", Robby nodded in Clawhausers direction, but he didn't nod back because he was fully concentrating on the thought of eating a full box of donuts in record time. Robby looked down at his pile of files and considered just running away and never coming back, but then he remembered that he wasn't a child and this wasn't homework, he was an adult, and he was doing office work.

"I should have just stayed in Tundra Town".

* * *

Authors Notes:

And here it is, the first glimpse of Nick and Judy and I've modified my writing style a little bit, nothing major just a little difference in the way I describe the scenes, anyway, I think I did a good job accurately representing the characters from the movie, but thats not up to me its up to the readers to decide if I did it well or not, I hope I did and I hope you all think so as well.

As usual, thanks for reading, feel free to like and follow, as well leave a review if you're inclined, I always seek to improve and a good criticism really helps out a lot.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Break Room.

"I told you carrots, I don't like donuts, how many times do I have to say before you get it?"

Nick and Judy where arguing near the coffee machine in the break room of the ZPD precinct, they were on their break from office work and were trying to decide what to have for lunch, it had been almost two weeks since Robby had become a detective and they still hadn't spoken to him properly.

"Because it doesn't make sense, everyone loves donuts, and you love sweet stuff more than anyone I know, plus, being a cop, it comes with the territory, you need to love donuts"

"They just rub me the wrong way, I'll stick to fruit for lunch, speaking of which, are your family growing blueberries again?"

"They planted the first batch last week, so you won't be seeing hopps blueberries for a while"

"Well then what's the point in me keeping you around farm girl?"

"Oh, I dunno, maybe because we're best friends and partners?"

"No, that can't be it, I'm pretty sure I just stay for the blueberries"

Judy punched nick on the arm in a friendly way, they both giggled as nick rubbed the spot that she punched, "Rabbit, you keep hitting me in that spot you're gonna leave my whole arm paralyzed from that point down"

"Good, then I can punch it and you won't notice"

"I'm glad to know you care about my safety Hopps"

"your safety? Nick, may I remind you of the time you almost ran me over in the parking lot?"

"Hey, that was not my fault I told you I'm not a good driver but you insisted I move the car out of the lot anyway"

"I didn't know you literally couldn't drive otherwise I would have done it myself, you should have just told me"

"I did, seven times, but no, you said "Oh nick, you'll be fine, its thirty feet what could go wrong?", and look what happened". Nick mockingly imitated Judy, doing a bad impression of her voice along with overexaggerated body movements and hand waving to get his point across.

"Nick, I do not sound, nor act like that", Judy unknowingly performed a body movement completely reminiscent of Nicks mocking, Nick's face turned extremely smug as Judy came to the realisation that she did sound, and act the way Nick did, "Ok, we lost track of the conversation, what were we talking about?"

"I don't remember either but it was something boring, let's talk about something interesting, like me for example"

"Could I just shoot myself with a tranq dart instead? It would give us something to talk about in the future, and more importantly, it would be a lot less boring"

"ya know Hopps, one day you might actually hurt my feelings saying something like that, maybe, probably not, definitely not, but you really shouldn't take the chance"

"Nick, just grab your coffee and lets go take a seat"

"Good idea, I'm bloomin' parched"

"You've been talking to Bogo too much Nick"

Nick grabbed two cups of freshly brewed coffee from the machine, Judy made her way over to one of the break room couches, followed swiftly by Nick, he handed Judy one of the cups and took a seat next to her. Nick picked up his phone and started texting, while Judy sat there with her eyes closed, she was particularly and didn't feel like speaking or wasting time on the internet, she just felt like sleeping.

"Bad night's sleep Hopps?"

"How'd you tell?", Judy smirked, she knew she wasn't going to get any sleep now that Nick wanted to talk.

"So what was it? Nightmare? Work? Stress? Or perhaps a combo?"

"I just couldn't sleep, something was just keeping me awake"

"Ah, I have those nights, what I try to do is count sheep."

"Hah, the last thing I want to do is count sheep nick"

"Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I guess there are better things to count"

"Such as?" Nick leaned forward in his chair, he really needed to think about what he was going to say.

"Foxes?"

"Nick, you're enough stress during the day, the thought of seeing your smug face while I'm trying to sleep is horrifying"

"How about cheetahs?"

"Ya know what, that's a good idea, they're fast so maybe they'll go by faster and I'll get to sleep in half the time", Judy was clearly mocking Nick at this point, he could tell by her tone of voice and the way she was just barely paying attention to the conversation that she didn't really care.

"Or maybe you could just take sleeping pills, I used to take them when I lived in a particularly loud neighbourhood a while back"

While Nick and Judy were talking the break room door swung open and in walked a familiar figure, Robby, wearing the same suit that he wore his first day, this is the first time Nick and Judy saw him outside of his office, he'd gained a bit of a reputation for being a workaholic.

"Afternoon officers" Robby gave them a quick two-finger salute as he walked by, Nick and Judy shared a smile at this as they're not used to officers being so formal around each other, especially not detectives, who were known for being particularly more relaxed around the office.

"Good afternoon Elmore, how's your day been?", Judy was first to reply, she was excited that she finally got to speak to him, she didn't like the fact that Robby was the only officer in the precinct she didn't know on a first name basis.

"Boring, it's been nothing but non-stop paperwork ever since I got here, I'm starting to think I'm never gonna be given a case", Robby proceeded to start pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Really? The other detectives have been swarmed with cases for the last few days, I wonder why Bogo hasn't put you on one yet"

"It's not just me, it's all the new detectives, from what I can tell Bogo is just stuck in his way, willing to keep us just sat there wasting time than actually take a chance on us and give us some cases, and unfortunately, the older detectives have a good enough grasp on their cases, even though they've got too many between them, that Bogo can keep doing it, we're last resort and it's starting to tick me off, but yeah, I'm sure you and Wilde here know enough about the old timer to know he's not changing any time soon"

"Not unless you make him, I only got my first case by undermining him in front of a civilian, and then the assistant mayor had to get in there before I was fired and guarantee me the case", Judy hoped this little anecdote would make Robby feel better about his situation, it didn't, it made him worry that he'll literally never get a case.

"Well, let's hope I don't have to go that far, I kinda like being a police office, I wouldn't wanna risk it, besides, something will eventually pop up", Nick put his hand up to Robby so he could interject into the conversation.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, he doesn't like to admit it but Bogo doesn't particularly like foxes, me being me doesn't help that, but I get disciplinaries more often than anyone in this place, he can be alright, but he's particularly snappy towards me"

"That's not right, we're all equals here aren't we? Some mammals are so backwards"

"Well he's in charge and he's still very good at his job, we're just gonna have to deal with it"

"Maybe you're right, still seems wrong to me", Robby grabbed his coffee and went to sit with Nick and Judy. Judy was getting even more excited, she had wanted to make friends with him ever since she first saw him, this was her big chance and she wasn't going to mess it up.

"Hang in there you'll get something soon enough, I know it, by the way, you can call me Judy, and he's Nick, we prefer first names with co-workers", Judy being slightly heavy handed was obvious in her attempts to get a first name out of Robby, he knew she wanted to know his name, he was happy to oblige, to at the very least be polite.

"The names Robby, sorry, I should have said before, I just assume everyone I meet at work has read my case-file, or seen me in the news reports"

"News reports?"

"Well we have something in common Judy, we both faced pure evil and came out on top, evil in the form of Dawn Bellwether"

"You were involved with Bellwether?"

"Yes, I was on the case where she causes a helicopter to crash a ton of mammals to go savage in a warehouse, it was pretty big at the time, considering your history with her it's surprising you didn't already recognise me"

"Ohh, I remember you, your partner was on her payroll and you caught her out, how did I forget?"

"Well I kinda faded off the map for a while, so like a lot of people you probably just forgot, which is good, because that was the idea"

"You didn't want recognition for the biggest case of the century?"

"Not really, it's not my style, plus I wanted to keep my head low while I prepared for this promotion", Nick seemed to regain interest in the conversation at this point.

"Can't blame ya, media attention is the last thing you want in this city", Nick said with contempt in his voice, "Especially if you're a fox, they'll either all be trying to say why you're a god among mammals or trying to say that foxes shouldn't be allowed in public, never mind be police officers, and the worst thing is, they are listened too, all the time, its best we just keep out of the media attention and don't make it a talking point, which is one of the main reasons I let Hopps here do all the talking at conferences or public statements", Judy snickered at this statement.

"So, it has nothing to do with your stage fright?", Nick acted offended at the statement.

"Stage fright? How dare you, I don't get scared of anything, I'm a god among mammals"

"Of course Nick, how could I forget?", Robby had a confused look on his face, he had no idea what was going on, he wasn't used to such overly friendly, but still completely mocking talk in the workplace, he was used to the odd joke here and there, but this was like something out of a buddy cop movie, it seemed slightly too surreal to him, so he decided to try and change the subject.

"So, how long have you two been working together?", Judy snapped back to the conversation.

"Oh, about two years now, but it feels like ten", Nick went back into offended mode.

"Well rabbit, I didn't realise you hated having me around so much"

"Maybe if you used my first name I wouldn't be in a constant state of anger"

"Hey, I only use first names with people I don't like, what can I say?"

"Ok fine, keep calling me Hopps, at least now I'll know if you stop liking me", again, Robby seemed bewildered by them taking the conversation off course so much, he didn't really get it at first but now he knew, they weren't just partners, they were best friends, maybe more but it isn't his place to judge.

"So, I get the idea that you two aren't just partners but you're also good friends right?", Nick and Judy both answered at the same time.

"Right"

"Do you ever consider that it may affect your work? I get wanting to be partners with someone you like but that could really have some negative effects in some, less than good scenarios, such as the one I experienced", Judy seemed confused at this sudden outburst, but she saw something in him that she hadn't noticed before, something Nick had seen from the beginning but Judy didn't see, or didn't want to see, Robby had a darkness in his eyes that she hadn't ever seen before, he wasn't like the other officers, he did his job to fight the problems of the world while ignoring his own, Judy, being the kind to do anything to help others couldn't sit by and watch him suffer, she may of only just met him, but she wanted him to be happy, it was just the way she was.

"Robby, we would never betray each other, we would never betray the ZPD, we're not like that, I know it must be hard, knowing your first ever partner was on the wrong side of the law, but that isn't everyone in the ZPD, sometimes we are just good people, let me prove it to you, when do you get off work?"

"7PM, why?"

"Let me and Nick take you out, we'll show you that you can be good friends and work together"

"I… Umm, I don't really go out, that's not really my thing"  
"Come on it's one night, if you hate it you don't have to do it again, it'll be a couple of hours, and you can leave whenever you like", Robby sighed, he was way too polite to turn the offer down, even if he disliked everything about it.

"Ok, I'll come out, but I guarantee you I won't enjoy myself, and where will we be going?"

"We'll go to a cop bar, it's not too far down the road so we can walk there, me and Nick finish at six so we'll wait for you in the lobby before we leave"

"I'm a big boy, I can find my way there, I'm not gonna ditch on you, write the address down for me I'll make my way there and meet you", Judy pulled out her notebook and pen and scribbled down an address, and then tore off the paper and handed it to Robby.

"This is the place"

"Thanks, I'll seeya there, anyway, gotta get back to work, I'll see you at about seven fifteen, depending on how far away this is"

"Ok, see you then Robby!", Robby put stood up, scrunched up his coffee cup and threw it in the trash, he then proceeded out of the room and back to his office, Judy, once she knew he was gone jumped out of her chair, she was so excited to be making friends with someone with such an aversion to being sociable.

"Nick, whatever you had planned tonight cancel it, we're going to the bar tonight"

"I heard Judy, I was planning on watching a movie tonight but whatever"

"You're not mad at me are you?"

"Nah, I love giving up my nights to help make Judy Hopps make friends"

"Nick please stop, it's just one night, it's not the end of the world"

"I told you, I'm fine. Judy", Nick stood up and made his way to the door, but before he left he made one more remark. "Judy Hopps", he then swooped out of the room and made his way back to his office.

* * *

Authors Notes:

A very dialogue heavy chapter, I'm enjoying writing dialogue quite a lot so the next chapter will be pretty dialogue heavy too, don't worry, there will be some action very soon, and it will be good, I hope :).

Also, I want to talk about something that's been nagging my mind, the general consensus of OC in Zootopia fanfics is pretty mixed, but I want to you all to be rest assured, this isn't a self-insert love story or something dumb like that, I want to write a semi-serious story to the best of my abilities and the characters in zootopia didn't really fit the archetype of the character I needed to headline it, so I created a character that I could shape and mold to my whim and have hopefully developed it well enough that when the overarching plot is actually revealed (Not gonna give it away that would be spoilers), it'll fit naturally, I hope I'm also writing Nick and Judy well, I want to keep them as accurate to the movie as possible as it really does play into the stories major plot point later on (no it isn't an "I know I'm in a movie" Situation), so that's pretty important to me.

Anyway, as usual, thanks so much for reading, feel free to leave a favorite and follow if you wish, and as always, reviews are extremely appreciated, I'm always looking to get better and criticism is the best tool to self improvement, thanks for reading :).


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